Grant: Team Grant - HIV/AIDS and comorbidities - LOI

With the advances of antiretroviral therapy, HIV-1 infection has become a chronic illness. People infected with HIV live longer and are faced with the health challenges associated with normal aging, including cardio-vascular disease, bone metabolism disorder, neuro-cognitive impairment. Recent studies have shown that HIV-infected individuals are at higher risk for these disorders than the general population. Furthermore, these diseases seem to occur prematurely in the HIV patient population. We hypothesize that several host and viral factors contribute to this premature aging phenotype. Cardio-vascular disease is of particular concern. Increased rates of myocardial infarctions in HIV+ subjects have been observed in several studies. Understanding the pathophysiological processes leading to this early atherosclerotic process may help identify biomarkers that could be used to prevent cardio-vascular events. We have assembled a team of world renowned experts in cardiology, immunology, host genetics and virology to better characterize the pathogenesis of cardio-vascular disease in HIV-1 patients and identify bio-markers and/or imaging studies that could help predict the cardiac risk in this patient population.